Winter Is Our Fury

Chapter Four: No Longer A Stark

Aris hid on the edge of the camp across a little stream where Arya, HotPie and Lommy were put to work with washing the pots. She unstrapped her leather vest from under her cloak and pulled it away leaving her in a under-top. She ran her fingers over the Stark sigil imprinted on the leather before throwing it into a little hole she dug and kicked dirt over the top.

Aris headed back to the stream and dipped her hands in the running water and pulled back her brown hair into a bun on the crest of her head.

She watched as Gendry walked back and forth between a pot and the stream with buckets of water. He knew she was watching him and he tried his best to ignore her, but her eyes wouldn't stop following him and it was making him anxious. Every time he could try to catch her, she would tear her eyes away and pretend to be washing her hands or fixing her hair.

He grumbled every time.

Aris pulled up her hood and sighed. Hiding amongst the men was a stupid idea. She wanted to take Arya and run.

"They come back, I say we yield." says Lommy scrubbing a pot. "Gendry's the one they want and she might be Aris Stark.

Aris dark eyes flew up to glare at the little boy who sat across from her on the stream and his eyes averted away in fear. "Are you?" asked HotPie innocently. "Aris Stark?"

"No." said Aris firmly, her eyes still trained on Lommy. HotPie nodded and continued to scrub the pot, he was soo gullible it was almost pitiful.

It was Lommy's turn to break the silence and say, "You don't wanna get caught in the middle of a battle."

"I ain't afraid of no battle!" the fat boy defended.

"If you got within of a mile of a battle you'd soil your pants!" Arya spat down the river as she scrubbed her own pots.

"I've seen lots of battles! I've saw..."

"Liar!"

But he continued to talk anyway, "...I saw a man, kill another man, just outside of a tavern in Flea Bottom." The fat boy exclaimed. "Stabbed him right in the neck."

"Two men fighting isn't a battle." the blonde boy informed.

"They had armour on."

"So?" said Arya.

"So, if they got armour on, it's a battle." the fat one explained. He was so confident he was right.

"No it isn't." his friend argued.

"What's a dyers apprentice know about battles anyway?"

"Gendry's an armourer's apprentice." Arya informed the two boys. If anyone knew about armour it would be him. "HotPie, tell Gendry what makes a fight into a battle."

HotPie and his blonde friend turned to Gendry who paused in the river with his bucket upon hearing the conversation.

"It's um... " HotPie began nervously. "When they got armour on."

"Who told you that?" Gendry asked frustrated.

"The knight."

"How'd you know he was a knight?"

"... Well, cause he had armour on..."

"You don't have to be a knight to have armour." Gendry explained to the dumbfounded boy. "Any idiot can buy armour."

"How'd you know?"

"Cause I sold armour!"

Aris chuckled at the boys stupidity. Both boys casted each other looks of defeat and decided they were finished their job, so they packed their pots and headed back into the thick of the camp.